All posts tagged Chief Mentor

School children perform during a program to initiate environmental awareness by ITC paperboards and the Ramky group, July 2010.

At one level Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is just another piece of jargon. Too often it’s more symbolic than real in contributing to society.

In the US, there is even considerable debate about the value of CSR. Some think firms can serve society best by maximizing risk-adjusted financial returns to shareholders and leaving societal contributions beyond job creation to the government. On the other hand, Indian leaders whom we interviewed in our study published in “The India Way” placed a lot of stock in CSR.

According to a report by SMC Capitals, there are over 3.1 crore active Indian users on social networking sites. According to a report on retailing by FICCI’s B2B directory website, over 60% of India’s population is under the age of 30, which means they are more likely to take their thoughts and complaints on line.

As these numbers are only expected to grow, keeping track of and caring about what’s being said about a brand in the digital world is increasingly important. Companies can spend millions of dollars to promote their brands, yet a single negative post can damage their reputations.

Starting your own business is something thay every Wall Street Journal reader worldwide has probably thought of at one point or another – some as a passing fancy, others with a determination that leads to great success. But the risks of failure are astronomical. So in our new Chief Mentor blog on india.wsj.com -

About India Chief Mentor

Produced by an expert panel of well known Indian entrepreneurs and investors, Alok Mittal, Mahesh Murthy, Dhruv Shringi, Sanjeev Bikchandani, Sanjay Anandaram, Varun Sahni and Rajeev Mantri, India Chief Mentor provides answers to key start-up challenges - whether building a business plan, scaling operations or seeking the right kind of funding. Write to paul.beckett@wsj.com with any feedback or ideas that you might have.